£2billion Facebook giveaway: At just 26, site founder pledges to donate half of his wealth to charity

By DANIEL BATES IN NEW YORK
Last updated at 10:11 PM on 9th December

At the age of 26, he is already one of the richest men in the world.

Now Mark Zuckerberg is to become one of the most generous, after vowing to donate half his £4.4billion fortune to charity.

The Facebook founder has signed The Giving Pledge, a commitment by dozens of American billionaires to give away at least 50 per cent of their wealth.

The brainchild of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and investment guru Warren Buffett, the scheme aims to encourage a wave of philanthropy among the super-rich.

Quids in: Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg has vowed to give at least half of his wealth to The Giving Pledge

Fifty-seven dollar billionaires have signed up and Zuckerberg, who set up his networking site in 2004, was among the latest 17 to take the pledge yesterday.

Even though most of his cash is still tied up in his company, he is keen to start giving at a younger age than usual.

‘People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?’ he said.

‘With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts.’

Charitable: The Giving Pledge now has 57 billionaires on board and, according to Warren Buffett, had 're-energised people thinking about philanthropy'

Mr Zuckerberg has seen his wealth rocket and, according to the latest rankings from Forbes magazine, it has more than trebled this year alone.

At 35th on the Forbes list of richest Americans, he is wealthier than Apple founder Steve Jobs, Star Wars director George Lucas and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

He joins AOL co-founder Steve Case, former junk bond trader Michael Milken and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz as a new entrant to The Giving Pledge.

‘I’m delighted to welcome these 17 families into the Giving Pledge community,’ said Mr Buffett, who is giving away 99 per cent of his £30billion fortune.

‘The Giving Pledge has re-energised people thinking about philanthropy and doing things in philanthropy and I look forward to many more conversations with families who are truly fortunate, and whose generosity can and will change lives.’

Scroll down for list of contributors...

Billionaire philanthropists: Warren Buffett with Bill and Melinda Gates smile during a news conference in New York four years ago when Buffett announced he was handing over his wealth

It is up to the billionaires as to how and when they give away the money – and to whom.

The pledges came as a surprise even in the U.S., which has a far more established culture of philanthropy than the UK. Such large donations have been rare here since Victorian times.

Mr Zuckerberg’s move follows the release of The Social Network, a film that characterises him as duplicitous backstabber in the early days of Facebook.

In late September, shortly before the film came out, he announced a £62million donation to the public school system in Newark, New Jersey.

Zuckerberg started Facebook while still a computing student at Harvard and has seen it grow to become the largest social networking site in the world with more than 500million members.